Highlights
- Rumor suggests that 343 Industries is working on a new single-player Halo campaign despite ongoing restructuring and the cancellation of post-launch story DLC plans for Halo Infinite.
- While nothing has been officially confirmed, if the rumors are true, the next Halo single-player campaign could pick up loose plot threads from Halo Infinite and be developed using Unreal Engine 5.
- The developer is also reportedly partnering with Certain Affinity on a new Halo multiplayer title, codenamed Tatanka, which will blend battle royale gameplay elements with extraction shooter mechanics.
The next single-player Halo campaign could already be in development, at least according to a new rumor. The future of the long-running Halo franchise is in question at the moment, with developer 343 Industries reportedly restructuring the team behind 2021’s Halo Infinite in the wake of Microsoft’s recent wave of layoffs and the departure of Infinite director Joe Staten earlier this year. While Halo Infinite has continued to get multiplayer support over the past couple of years, reports suggest that 343 has abandoned its earlier plans for additional solo campaigns that would continue the story of Master Chief and his new AI companion The Weapon.
That isn’t to say that Halo’s story won’t carry forward in an entirely new game, as the same insider reports that claimed that Infinite’s post-launch story DLC plans were canceled also suggested that 343 Industries is moving on to a brand-new Halo project. The developer is already reportedly partnering with Certain Affinity, a studio that assisted with Halo Infinite’s multiplayer, on a new Halo multiplayer title that will blend the battle royale gameplay elements of titles like Fortnite with extraction shooter mechanics. Codenamed Tatanka, this project will supposedly be the first Halo game to be built in Unreal Engine instead of 343’s proprietary Slipspace engine.
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Tatanka might not be the only new Halo project 343 Industries has in the works, as a new rumor hints that the developer is already hard at work on a new single-player campaign. This report was shared on the latest episode of Hoeg Law's Bitcast livestream, with co-host Ains stating that he heard word of this campaign being developed as part of 343’s Unreal-based Halo restructuring. He added that he isn’t sure when this campaign will launch, but he guesses that it won’t be for at least a couple more years.
Nothing about Tatanka or this newly-rumored Halo single-player campaign has been officially confirmed by Microsoft or 343 Industries, but the latter has maintained that the Halo franchise will remain a cornerstone of the Xbox brand in the face of recent layoffs and Microsoft’s blockbuster buyout of Activision Blizzard. Sure enough, fans have been left eager for more single-player content in light of Halo Infinite’s cliffhanger ending, which featured Halo Wars 2 antagonist Atriox unsealing more of the Endless forces that menaced Master Chief in Infinite.
If these newest rumors are correct, then this and other loose plot threads from Halo Infinite could be picked up in the next Halo single-player campaign, which is reportedly being developed using Unreal Engine 5. In the meantime, Halo Infinite players will dive into the upcoming Season 5 multiplayer content, which includes a returning Firefight mode and new character cosmetics modeled after the dreaded Flood, later this week.
Source: TweakTown